I tend to be a trusting person, but also a realist, so i have done some research on scams and how to recognize them. I want to find my partner and soulmate and was married to a Belarussian girl. I also met a wonderful Ukrainian girl on this site, but we did not decide to get married. So need to weed through the players and scammers to find the real people. I think knowing a lot about the internet and also understanding some Russian and some of the culture, I can see a little more easily when someone is fake. There are often inconsistencies that are apparent if you know what to look for. I had one girl write with me for about 10 days and then indicated that she was using her friend's profile. Another girl was very engaging in the letters, answered all the questions I asked and asked me questions, but eventually sent me part of a letter that was the same as the previous letter. I started to wonder and then realized the pictures she was sending me were of Lera Gromova. Not sure what either were trying to accomplish.
Some simple rules I use: do not send money for anything until close enough to be considered exclusive (from my experience, a proper Russian woman would never ask a man she was not very close with for money); the girl is not your girlfriend just because you are writing letters and Skyping, it takes more of a commitment than that; sending a package or any type of present does not obligate the girl in any way; visit her in her country first (nothing would be worse than spending money for a ticket and having her come to visit a friend and avoid you completely); you cannot be sure the girl is even "real" until you see pictures that are not staged or taken on a photo-shoot (the nice thing about this site, you can see people in everyday situations with their pictures).